Watching veteran bass Samuel Ramey perform the supporting role of Leporello, the servant to Don Giovanni—the title role that Ramey played countless times throughout his long career—it was hard not to be struck by the irony of a singer at the twilight of a career juxtaposed next to a young singer, Italian baritone Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, who has been principally thus far associated with Leporello singing the Don next to yesteryear’s Don of Dons. But old habits apparently die hard, and as D’Arcangelo was singing away, the still far more charismatic Ramey could be seen actually mouthing the starring role along with him throughout the evening. Even more ironically, at one point the staging calls for Ramey to mouth for D’Arcangelo, when the plot calls for one to pose as the other. It was the highest drama to be experienced in an otherwise problematic production that was hopelessly confused and convoluted. Unlike the responsive ensemble of Chicago Symphony musicians assembled for “The Abduction From the Seraglio,” this alternate set of players of more high profile orchestral personnel never got the right feel for this music, performing in a consistently stodgy and heavy-handed manner, despite conductor James Conlon’s best attempts to keep things light and moving. Even worse, the recitatives are left to be played by a harpsichord far from the stage that had singers falling even further behind. Add to all this that the cast assembled to sing these iconic roles are by and large ill-equipped to sing Mozart and substitute heavy vibrato and a lack of precision for music that needs to be flexible and transparent, and the contrast couldn’t be more dramatic than the excellence being displayed during the “Abduction” performances that are running in repertory with this poorly done “Don” that unfortunately, descends into hell long before the Don himself gets there in the climax. (Dennis Polkow)

Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” plays through August 17 at Ravinia’s Martin Theatre, Lake-Cook at Green Bay Rds., Highland Park, (847)266-5100.

RECOMMENDED

For the first decades of its existence, Ravinia was the summer opera capital of the United States and concert opera was a significant element of the 22-year music directorship of James Levine, who was also music director of the Metropolitan Opera. That tradition stopped under Christoph Eschenbach but has continued on under James Conlon, who is also music director of the Los Angeles Opera and the Cincinnati May Festival, where this semi-staged version of Mozart’s “The Abduction From the Seraglio” originated in 2006 conceived around Michael York narrating the spoken portions with a script by Marie Therese Squerciati that streamlines much of the action as well as wryly interpolates the proceedings for a modern audience with an Anglo sensibility that perfectly suits York’s narration. But make no mistake: it is the singing and the music that are the clear stars of this production, from Morris Robinson’s velvet-smooth deep bass and terrifying yet comical portrayal of the sadistic Osmin to Hanan Alattar’s stunning ease through the soprano stratosphere as Konstanze to James Conlon’s lively tempos and brilliant shaping of a chamber ensemble made up of non-vacationing Chicago Symphony members. What a rare treat it is to hear a Mozart opera in Ravinia’s Martin Theatre, with its 800-plus seats, close to the size of the theaters that Mozart had in mind when he wrote these works rather than the too large Harris Theater (Chicago Opera Theater) or the cavernous Civic Opera House (Lyric Opera) where nuance and subtlety are lost. The experience is nothing short of revelatory and long may this glorious tradition continue. But next time around, please, Ravinia, keep the standards consistent and hire a professional chorus, preferably members of the CSO’s own unparalleled ensemble rather than a volunteer chorus. For this work a chorus is only heard twice, but they are crucial and climactic moments that mar what precedes them, kind of like baking a cake from scratch and using canned frosting to top it off. (Dennis Polkow)

Mozart’s “The Abduction From the Seraglio” plays through August 16 at Ravinia’s Martin Theatre, Lake-Cook at Green Bay Rds., Highland Park, (847)266-5100.

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Chicago Opera Theater had its say, now James Conlon and the Chicago Symphony have their turn at the work that many consider the most perfect of all operas. Ildebrando D’Arcangelo stars as the Don and longtime Giovanni of yesteryear and Chicagoan Samuel Ramey sings the role of his servant Leporello in these semi-staged Martin Theatre performances. Ramey, the most recorded bass in history who was so loyal to Lyric Opera and such a mainstay there for so many years that he moved to Chicago (it helped that he married a member of the chorus), is no longer engaged by Lyric now that he’s at the twilight of his long and wonderful career, but unlike his close friend and tenor Jerry Hadley, who was so despondent about roles drying up that he committed suicide last year, Ramey has taken a far more optimistic attitude and could well end up stealing the show from the Don as several notable Leporellos have done over the years. The woman seduced by the Don but faithfully cataloged in song by Leporello include Ellie Dehn as Donna Anna, Soile Isokoski as Donna Elvira and Heidi Grant Murphy as Zerlina. (Dennis Polkow)

At Ravinia Festival’s Martin Theatre, Lake-Cook & Green Bay Rds., Highland Park, 847)266-5100, 7pm August 15, 2pm August 17. $10-$75.

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Ravinia scooped the Chicago Symphony big time by assembling the same forces—including soprano Dawn Upshaw, conductor Robert Spano and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chorus —as can be heard on the spectacular 2006 recording of Osvaldo Golijov’s opera “Ainadamar” (Deutsche Grammaphon) right after it was released, but now the CSO gets its turn at performing this dynamic, evocative and profound work. Argentine-born and of Eastern European descent, Golijov has been able to synthesize a wide variety of music traditions into an original voice that is far more than the sum of its parts and which speaks to musicians and audiences alike. “Ainadamar” is Arabic for “fountain of tears” and the name of an ancient well near Granada where Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca was killed in 1936 by Fascist Falangist forces at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. That incident is told in sometimes ferocious flashbacks in a libretto by playwright David Henry Hwang while Golijov’s music movingly evokes Spanish flamenco, folk traditions, Arabic chant and musical cues, descriptions of which often surrounded the highly musical and mystical Lorca’s manuscripts. Indeed, there has always been a deep connection between Lorca’s poetry and the national art forms of Spain, especially flamenco and Spanish popular songs, and this work stands as a brilliant synthesis. Dawn Upshaw, the soprano that Golijov wrote the work for, performs in all but the Friday performance, when Jessica Rivera steps in to give Upshaw a breather. Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducts all of the performances. (Dennis Polkow)

At the Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan, (312)294-3000. This production is now closed.

By Debbie Goldgaber

Talk to a choreographer and it won’t take long for the topic of collaboration to come up—from set-design to staging, it’s all about multimedia and multi-disciplinary approaches. Despite the recent buzz, such collaborations are hardly new to the dance world. Think Martha Graham’s famous lifelong collaboration with sculptor Isamu Noguchi (beginning in 1935) or William Forsythe’s association with architectural innovator Daniel Liebskind. Closer to home, we’ve seen Hubbard Street Dance company collaborate and perform with the CSO, to brilliant effect. In this context, HSDC’s latest multi-disciplinary enterprise—this time in collaboration with IIT’s College of Architecture—might be seen as an extension of previous efforts. But there are reasons for thinking that the company’s January 27 performance at S.R. Crown Hall will be a historic event of sorts. In addition to premiering some original choreography, the evening marks the culmination of an experiment original enough to inspire imitation.

The experiment began with the proverbial meeting of the minds. In this case, the minds of award-winning architect Dirk Denison and critically acclaimed choreographer Jim Vincent, artistic director of HSDC. Like his Harvard teacher Daniel Liebskind, Denison has a profound appreciation for dance—and presciently saw the possibility of a mutually beneficial relationship. Luckily, it was not difficult to convince Vincent. “The motivating question for me is always how to imagine presentations outside of the black box, outside the proscenium stage,” he says.

While it’s fairly intuitive that dance has something to gain from innovative spatial environments, it’s less clear what architects stand to gain from dance. Denison’s hunch was, well, quite a lot. “I feel strongly that dance is among the most conscious ways that we occupy space and building consciousness like that among architectural students is critical to their education,” he says. “Design, as a function, has a vocabulary—namely, space; in dance it’s about movement, body and space. So, the immediate goal was to explore the nature of this overlap.” Denison was convinced that in working jointly with choreographers and dancers, and directly accessing a related creative process, his students would come away with new methods for working.

There were, however, some pitfalls to avoid. Too often, both Denison and Vincent admit, collaboration amounts to little more than compromise. “What we were after was reaching new terrain,” explains Vincent, “a genuine integration of creative processes.” To encourage this integration, IIT students were exposed to movement classes at Hubbard Street. Far from perfecting their pliés, the exercises focused on “the experience of movement itself, stimulating awareness of the surrounding space and how to move in and out of it.”

More concretely, what brought the architects, dancers and choreographers together was a shared space—in this case Mies van de Rohe’s masterpiece, S.R. Crown Hall. Tucked amid several architectural gems on IIT’s South Loop campus, the iconic Crown Hall houses the school’s architecture program. Jokingly referring to the space as the glass-box version of a one-room schoolhouse, it was Denison’s idea to stage the dances here—no doubt because such an open, undifferentiated space offers the spatial equivalent of a blank canvas.

As anticipated, the unique space and its constraints encouraged the dancers and architects to play with what is typically a fixed-arrangement between audience and performers. To accommodate the diverse works in the context of a single, built environment, the designers seem to have adopted something of a peripatetic strategy, keeping the performers and audience moving. For choreographer Lucas Crandall’s piece, dancers perform on a ramp to a seated audience. Audience and performers then reverse positions for Alejandro Cerrudo’s work. Finally, the audience surrounds the dancers performing Brian Enos’ piece. Audience members are advised to wear comfortable clothes.

As with dance, innovation in architecture requires the capacity for spatial play—or experimentation. And while architecture directly thematizes space, dance, at its best, shows us new possibilities of inhabiting it. Viewed in this way, the benefits of this “cross-pollination,” as Vincent sees it, are barely realized: “This is the point from where we jump off—now that we’ve gotten into each other’s heads and into each other’s bodies.”

 Hubbard Street Dance Chicago at S.R. Crown Hall, 3360 South State, (312)850-9744. This production is now closed

RECOMMENDED

If you’re a dance company, you need live music to dance to, and if you’re a symphony orchestra, you need something for your audience to look at other than folks sitting there in tails and gowns.  Such is the mutual benefit for the collaboration between Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, a partnership that is celebrating its fifth anniversary.  Past collaborations and new works will be spotlighted at this special anniversary one-night-only performance, which will include the first-ever collaboration between the two organizations, “counter/part,” choreographed by Hubbard artistic director Jim Vincent and set to movements from Bach’s “Brandenburg” Concertos along with the return of 2004’s “SF/LB,” set to Leonard Bernstein’s “Prelude, Fugue and Riffs,” with choreography by Daniel Ezralow as well as an excerpt from Vincent’s 2007 “Palladio” with music by Karl Jenkins and a preview performance of Doug Varone’s “The Constant Shift of Pulse,” set to music of John Adams, which will be officially premiered by Hubbard in March.  Also included on this Edwin Outwater conducted program are Mendelssohn’s “Hebrides” Overture and Bartok’s “Romanian Folk Dances.”  (Dennis Polkow) 

At the Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan, (312)294-3000. This production is now closed.